Schengen Visa and Travel Information

I just need to keep this on my blog for future use. As I have mentioned previously on my blog, when my colleagues and your truly met up and dine at Wild Ginger, they both gave a lot of information that got me inspired to expand my horizon and pursue my dream of traveling a lot of countries in the future! Of course, this will not happen overtime but at least having to set your goal make you want to look forward to the future.

I already heard of Schengen visa but didn't really look deeper into it, even mistakenly pronounce the term everytime I say it, but now that I was able to read more about it, I understand what it really meant.

The Schengen Visa has made traveling between its 15 European member countries much easier and less bureaucratic. Traveling on a Schengen Visa means that the visa holder can travel to any (or all) member countries using one single visa, thus avoiding the hassle and expense of obtaining individual visas for each country. This is particularly beneficial for persons who wish to visit several European countries on the same trip. The Schengen visa is a “visitor visa”. It is issued to citizens of countries who are required to obtain a visa before entering Europe.

The purpose of the visit must be leisure, tourism, or business. Upon the issuance of the visa, the visa holder is allowed to enter all member countries and travel freely throughout the Schengen area. It is strongly recommended to plan your journey within the timeframe of the Schengen Visa as extensions can be very difficult to obtain, thus forcing you to leave to stay in compliance with the Schengen rules and regulations. A Schengen visa allows the holder to travel freely within the Schengen countries for a maximum stay of up to 90 days in a 6 month period.  

• Austria
• Germany
• Belgium
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Greece
• Iceland
• Italy
• Luxemburg
• Norway
• Portugal
• Spain
• Sweden
• The Netherlands

According to my read, all Schengen countries are in Europe. However, it should not be confused with the EU (European Union). Schengen and European Union are two different agreements between European countries. A total of 30 countries, including all European Union countries (except Ireland and United Kingdom) and three non-EU members (Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland) have signed the Schengen agreement. However, only 15 countries have implemented the common border control and visa provisions.

Important: The Schengen Visa holders are not allowed to live permanently or work in Europe. - Source

Aside from this information, I also learned that you should not to go to Jeruzalem, if you still plan to return to United Arab Emirates, Dubai in particular, where I am currently residing and working. Sad that I learned about this because I want to treat my mom to a Jeruzalem travel, so we need to avoid this country for the meantime.

And I was informed that Brazil and Morocco doesn't require Visa to visit the place. Do you think Sao Paolo is a good place to visit in the future?

And to top it all, I am now a member of Skywards! Its a start. Hahaha!

Dream to travel. Let's!